Shauna Corr

Mid Ulster council is to discuss a motion in support of sustainable milk prices for dairy farmers at a meeting on Thursday.

The passage, put forward by Councillor Glasgow, outlines how local farmers “are at breaking point”.

And suggests writing to Agriculture Minister Michelle O’Neill and local MEPs expressing council’s concern at the low prices farmers are being forced to accept for their produce.

It states: “Unsustainable milk prices are destroying the dairy farms in Mid Ulster, farms will have to close, and generations of farming families will no longer exist as their way of life will be taken from them if action is not taken at once.

“The Minister for Agriculture must now realise her absolute main priority should be promoting local produce as well as identifying and opening new export markets.

“In addition she must work with all her Ministerial counterparts most especially Liz Truss, Secretary of State at DEFRA, on increasing pressure on Commissioner Hogan to raise the intervention price for milk.”